Company holds ribbon cutting ceremony for new headquarters
Fort Wayne, Ind. (Nov. 20, 2008) — Fort Wayne based designer, manufacturer, and distributor of men’s business and travel bags and accessories as well as women’s leather handbags and accessories, Baekgaard, announced today the opening of its newly constructed corporate headquarters and distribution facility in southwest Allen County, Indiana. Located at 12420 Silverado Drive, Roanoke, Indiana 46783, the new headquarters will house all Baekgaard operations, something the company has not done in a single location for over 2 years due to its recent growth.
The facility, constructed in Silverado Industrial Park located at the corner of Lafayette Center Road and Zubrick Road and designated shovel ready by the State of Indiana, was built for Baekgaard by Briner Building. The office space features approximately 10,000 square feet of space committed to uses such as product development and design, customer service and sales, marketing, finance, administration and corporate training. State of the art electronics and information technology systems are important capabilities built into the office and distribution facility to better allow Baekgaard to keep up with its growth and to best serve its approximately 4500 retail customers. Baekgaard also ships directly to end use consumers from the new facility to fulfill sales made on its ecommerce website,
www.baekgaardltd.com. The distribution portion of the facility is 30,000 square feet of 32 foot high space that features a warehouse management system that provides a paperless, efficient method of distributing the approximately 1000 items that Baekgaard designs and sells to its customers.
The building features several aspects which make it “green friendly” such as recycled steel in the warehouse structure, water saving plumbing fixtures, high efficiency lighting throughout the office and warehouse, use of storm water runoff for irrigation purposes, recycled asphalt for parking surfaces, as well as many other environmentally considerate features.
Baekgaard has invested over $4 million in its new headquarters and technology, as well as new fixtures and equipment housed in the new building.
About the Company
Baekgaard, founded in 1951 by native Dane and naturalized American Citizen, Peer Baekgaard, was moved from the Chicago area in 2003 when Vera Bradley co-founder Barbara Baekgaard and family friend, Art Mandelbaum, acquired ownership of the company. Since moving the company to Indiana, it has grown from employing 3 people in early 2004, to now employing over 20 and having added approximately 130 independent sales representatives throughout the U.S. and parts of Canada. During that same period, Baekgaard sales have grown more than ten times. Over the coming years, Baekgaard expects continued growth in sales and to continue to add employees in customer service, marketing, information technology, operations and distribution in order to keep pace with the expected growth.
For more information on Baekgaard, visit www.baekgaardltd.com.